There's a pretty huge contrast between the Citadelles of season 68 and the ones from season 69 (nice). The fans in the old capital were ready to endure a few seasons of misery after their favourite team went from first in the SMJHL to second to last in the span of two seasons but it looks like QCC didn't stay horrible for very long.

We all remember the footage of fans falling to their knees crying in the streets of the historic Québec City downtown when Sophie Bordeleau announced she'd make the jump to the big leagues and Portgas D. Ace moved back to Japan never to be heard from again. The Citadelles lost other important pieces, like superstar goaltender Caleb Hayden, but those two players led their team by nearly 30 points so their departures really hurt a team that already struggled defensively. QCC was, after all, 7th in goals against in the league despite finishing first in the rankings in S68.

Sadly, the Citadelles were very much in a "win now" mindset and had traded most of their S68 draft picks and couldn't start replacing some of their lost assets right away. It's obvious management decided to sacrifice season 68 and look to the future. With the departure of some of the franchise's best ever players and no draft picks, it was the only logical thing to do after all.

Luckily, Québec had some pieces to base their rebuild on, namely Viktor Hargreeves, Jack St. Clair and Nevek Kove. Those three had been some of the rare bright spots in a forgettable season 68 for the Owls, with Kove even cracking the top 5 in shots blocked in the league.

Coming into the S69 draft, the Citadelles' needs were pretty much at every position. They decided to draft a defense(wo)man at third overall, Elena Maximova. The Ukrainian of course had connections with the team, since her older brother Jasper had played his junior hockey in Québec City and was the team's captain when they won their only title. More than that, though, she showed a lot of potential as an offensive defenseman and scoring goals was kind of a huge need for the Citadelles.

The team acquired another first round pick from the Carolina Kraken and drafted Kieran Kovalev at 12th overall. Kieran has proven to be an excellent addition to the roster not only because of their offensive talent but also because of the physicality they bring to the team.

In the second round, QCC drafted perhaps the biggest steal of the draft in Nathan Cormier. He had a slow start offensively but has really found his footing lately. He started off as a more defensively minded player but has been nearly a point per game player in recent games.

I also want to give a shoutout to other players I wish I had more words left to talk about: Smurfunkel Dothe, Redd Savage and our waiver pickups Jiggle E. Puff and Lea Cranberry but I really, really hate writing and I'm super close to reaching 500 words.

Anyway, I think we can say that the Citadelles are on the right path to be a force in the league for at least a couple of seasons in a row. Losing veterans will obviously impact them but with the players they acquired in S69, there's room for growth for many seasons to come. This rebuild will not be so bad, after all.